How much, if any, was spent in the 2025/26 financial year in the Minister's departments, agencies, crown entities and any other bodies that the Minister is responsible for, if any, on artificial intelligence, including costs on training staff, deploying systems, maintaining subscriptions and any other associated costs?

Answer

The Ministry of Education (the Ministry) meets costs associated with artificial intelligence (AI) through existing departmental baselines and investment programmes. Training costs for Ministry staff in AI-enabled tools are incorporated within broader workforce capability activities and are not separately identified. In the 2025/26 financial year, the Student Monitoring, Assessment, and Reporting Tool (SMART) project spent $1,215,833 on AI. This funding supports AI assisted marking of writing and tuhituhi responses, and the generation of bulk assessment items for item development processes. Additional Ministry AI-related expenditure identified in 2025/26 included Microsoft 365 Copilot licences ($160,670.95), AI governance activities ($88,162.50), and AI-related training and professional development ($3,695.51). Network for Learning (N4L) reported AI-related expenditure of approximately $341,000 in 2025/26. This expenditure covered licences and subscriptions, and research and discovery activities. Education New Zealand spent $35,856.63 on AI in the 2025/26 financial year. This includes spend on staff training ($4,111.51), software licencing ($1,152.53), and marketing tools ($30,592.59). The New Zealand Qualifications Authority incurred costs totalling $1,640,329 on AI initiatives and related activities in financial year 2025/26. The Education Review Office spent $6,918 for AI tools outside of the main Microsoft subscription fees in the 2025/26 financial year.